Richmond unemployment rose to 7.7 percent in September

They boost the jobless rate when schools' summer vacations start, and again a few weeks after their college terms start. Returning college students looking for work for a few extra bucks boosted the local unemployment rate slightly last month.

But some, evidently, may have found work.

The Virginia Employment Commission yesterday reported that the number of people working in metropolitan Richmond rose by 1,300 to 607,900 -- even as the number of people looking for work, the official definition of the unemployed, also rose. That number was up by 260, to 49,760.

The effect was enough to nudge the Richmond region's unemployment rate up from 7.6 percent in August to 7.7 percent in September. The rate was 4.4 percent last year.

"We're not really looking at an economic trend here," said William F. Mezger, the employment commission's chief economist.

And despite the flood of student job-seekers in the college towns of the New River Valley, the unemployment rate there declined to 7.8 percent from 8 percent.

There, automakers' roughly one-month delay in the usual July model changeover translated to hiring at area auto-parts plants in September instead of the usual August rise, Mezger said.

Timing was a factor in the Richmond job data, as well. It meant a belt-tightening state government's employment appeared to rise in September. The reason: People starting work at the area's two state universities and two community colleges boosted state employment by 2,300 jobs in September, a 6 percent increase from August.

The area's other job-growth areas were in financial services and heath and education services, each of which added 600 jobs.

But after a brief blip up earlier this summer, construction employment declined, shedding 400 jobs, to 35,700. Retailers also cut 400 jobs, bringing employment in that sector down to 63,600.

The biggest loss though was in the leisure and hospitality business, down 1,700 jobs from August, to 49,200. That's down by 3,900 jobs, or 7 percent, from last year's level, so the losses don't merely reflect the end of the summer tourism season.

Professional and business services -- which ranges from accountants to temporary help -- shed 1,100 jobs from August, to 95,900.

Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or .